Who Needs Faith

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Who Needs Faith?

By Nate Harlan

“For the doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas. It bears a whole world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of God our Savior.”

J.I. Packer

Unilateral action

In Romans 4, Paul says some interesting things about the relationship between faith and righteousness; in 4:5 he tells us that faith is credited as righteousness by God, citing Abraham as an example. This has some thought-provoking implications for those within Christendom who see faith not as a result of regeneration, but as a precursor to it. I’m speaking of (you guessed it) synergists. The idea that faith must come before regeneration is the very foundation of synergism; it flows from the conviction (or more accurately, ‘sentiment,’ or even more accurately, ‘warm & fuzzy feeling‘) that salvation is in essence bi-lateral, requiring that the will of depraved man become synergized with the will of God. This synergy is achieved, supposedly, when the sinner decides (man’s responsibility) to step forth and exercise his inherent ability to believe, trusts in Christ and is thusly regenerated (God‘s responsibility); salvation cannot occur until this synergizing of the human will with the divine has taken place. As you might have guessed, monergism rejects the notion that salvation is bilateral and adheres to a unilateral view of salvation, in which the sinner is regenerated according to the election of God as opposed to the choice of the sinner, prior to any occurrence of faith. Faith is then bestowed upon the sinner following regeneration, not before - for the unregenerate heart cannot possess it (as we shall see). Salvation is therefore unilateral, with God accomplishing all that is necessary to achieve it, while man contributes nothing but his sin - hence the term monergism. Here’s a quick summary of the difference between synergism and monergism in regard to faith: synergism = first faith, then regeneration; monergism = first regeneration, then faith.

Behind door #1...

Still not clear? Here’s an illustration: say that salvation is a locked door that requires a key to be opened. In synergism, faith is the key that opens the door of redemption; all people may possess the key, and all must choose to unlock the door, because God won’t unlock it for us (otherwise there’d be no synergy). God takes care of everything once you’re through the door, but the ball can’t get rolling until you take that initial step of faith. According to monergism the key is not faith but election, which God did according to His grace and good pleasure. In this view, God unlocks the door and ushers us into His kingdom, where we receive faith as a gift, so that we may believe and be justified. ‘Opening the door’ is not therefore dependent upon human faith and decision, but upon the unconditional election of God and the work of Christ. Do you see the difference? Synergism makes man partly responsible for saving himself by requiring that he contribute faith in order to be saved, while monergism contends that God alone does the saving apart from any contribution from man. These differences of understanding in regard to the place of faith within salvation are far from ’peripheral,’ and merit further consideration - synergists and monergists cannot both be correct on this matter, nor is it simply a ’mystery’ for which a viable answer cannot be found.

Cart before the ox

Since it is man that must ‘decide’ to have faith in Christ, then he must believe, to some measure, in Christ before his heart is made new - otherwise he would never seek such renewal in the first place; why would a sinner turn to a Christ in whom he did not believe? If synergism be true, then the unregenerate sinner must have faith before he actually trusts in Christ, otherwise no one would ever be saved. Synergists cannot claim that regeneration takes place the moment faith pops into the heart, because this would remove the need for an act of the will - and would smack of unconditional election. No, if man cannot be regenerated unless he chooses to trust in Christ, and if he is not truly regenerate until his choice is made, then he must possess the faith necessary for making that choice. For how could one who has no faith choose to receive Christ? Such a faithless person could choose only to reject Christ, for he would lack the means and motivation to receive Him. It follows, then, that unregenerate sinners must possess faith prior to regeneration, according to the synergistic model of salvation; this is where synergism runs into a rather nasty problem with orthodoxy.

Sola Gratia? Is that an Italian dish?

In Romans 4, Paul tells us that when Abraham believed God (i.e. had faith), God credited it to him as righteousness. What does this imply? Simple: if one possesses genuine faith, then one is righteous in the sight of God, for it is by faith that we believe and are justified. Now we know that righteousness comes only through Christ by grace, and not due to any merit within ourselves. This is where the problem lies for synergism, for here Paul seems to be saying that salvation is most assuredly not synergistic. Why? Because he goes to great effort to elaborate upon the fact that salvation is based upon grace, and not works, in the following chapters (dare I say he‘s even repetitious?). As Luther so gloriously realized when he read Romans, justification comes not by the works of man, but by the grace of God through the work of Christ. Salvation is not, therefore, dependent in any way upon the work of man - this is a cornerstone of Christian orthodoxy. We cannot, therefore, conclude that faith is a ‘work’ of the human heart, for this would imply that we, at least in part, are responsible for justifying ourselves. Yet, this is exactly what synergism claims - for if the unregenerate must possess faith in order to come to Christ, then it follows that the unregenerate also possess righteousness prior to regeneration (remember, faith is credited as righteousness) and are responsible for justifying themselves via their show of faith. The error of this idea should be clear from the start, for it makes salvation dependent upon merit rather than grace. If faith is something that sinners are responsible for ‘producing,’ then they, in essence, are the source of their own justification - a far cry from the sola gratia Gospel Luther proclaimed.

So what is the place of faith within salvation? Is it even necessary? Absolutely - but not as a precursor to regeneration. Man must have faith if he is to trust in Christ and stand justified before God, but such faith is not something he congers within himself - it is bestowed upon the elect by God following regeneration. Romans 12:3, for example, tells us that God has “allotted” to each a “measure of faith.” The word “allotted” - merizo in Greek - suggests what is stated above, that faith is a gift given by God, rather than a self-conjured ’product’ of the human heart. Faith, therefore, is not a prerequisite for regeneration, but the means by which God enables His elect to trust in Christ following regeneration. Thus we have sola fide, for it is by faith alone that God marks the elect as His as they trust in the provision of Christ for justification, which would be impossible for the unregenerate. Apart from faith, there is no justification, and faith cannot be had unless God first bestows it.

The deification of Dr. Phil, or “A ranting I shall go…”

Whether you like it or not, our beliefs in regard to the meaning of justification by faith greatly influences how we “do” evangelism. If it is true that people must produce faith and can only do so if convinced of the Gospel’s validity, then we ought to spend all our time and money enticing people to Christ. Such thinking has spawned the seeker-sensitive movement, which in turn generated an obtuse amount of concern over the Church’s ‘cultural relevancy’ (or more accurately, cultural appeal). If we are to win depraved people to Christ, we must make Christ attractive to depraved people, or so goes the thinking. He must be packaged in an appealing and non-offensive manner, until He’s little more than a defied Dr. Phil who’s more concerned with our happiness than His glory.

This line of thought has turned many churches into altars of anthropocentrism where proven marketing and entrepreneurial tactics are employed, resulting in entertaining worship, inoffensive messages, scriptural ignorance and pervasive spiritual impotency. Churches try in vain to appeal to the lost through video clips and movie-based Bible studies, all in the interest of weaning them of their appetite for sin by offering a milk-toast Gospel that carries all the theological weight of an Oprah episode. Thus, the focus of the Church has shifted from the glorification of God and the proclamation of His Word to the swindling and enticement of the heathen heart and mind. This unbiblical weed of an approach to evangelism finds its root in the central idea that faith may be wrought within the unregenerate heart if Christ is presented in just the right packaging (preferably enviro-friendly). This approach to evangelism credit’s the success of the Gospel not to the work of the Spirit, but to the savvy of the evangelist. Therefore pastors should be more motivational speaker and less expositors of the Word; after all, Tony Robbins has sold a lot more tapes than Spurgeon ever has.

On the periphery

Many well-intended persons would claim that such inconsistencies within synergistic theology ought to be overlooked in the interest of unity. The place of faith within the order of salvation, thus it would seem, is on the periphery of theological importance. Is the sufficiency of the atonement, then, also a matter of ‘peripheral’ significance? Does the Gospel possess the elasticity necessary to allow that man, at least in part, is responsible for justifying himself? Hopefully, the answer to these questions are plain enough. Unfortunately for the synergist, such questions pose a rather daunting challenge: maintaining salvation by grace alone while requiring man merit that grace by a self-induced show of faith. Such a position is biblically untenable, and leaves the synergist with the option of embracing monergism (and thus embrace sola gratia), or admitting his Pelagian heritage and thus expose himself as a false son of the Reformation. One way or another, the Church cannot continue to tolerate the erroneous teaching that faith - through which we are justified and made righteous in the sight of God - is a product of the unregenerate heart, for this implies that man may justify himself. We must return to the classical understanding of sola fide, treating it not as a precursor to regeneration, but as the gift God graciously bestows upon His elect so that they may stand justified in Christ. We cannot forge faith within the hearts of the lost through apologetics, programming, appeals to emotion, or any other means; we can, however, love them in truth and call them to repentance in Christ as we pray for the Spirit to accomplish that which is infinitely beyond us - turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, hearts that shall joyously receive the tidings of Christ by grace alone through faith alone.